Bookbinding



Patented Dec. 15, 1942 UNiTED STATES i firTENT OFFICE BOOKBINDING Allen Hofrichter, Suffern, N. Y.

Application April 14, 1942, Serial No. 438,889

4 Claims. Cl. (281-40) This invention relates to improvements in the art of book binding, and more particularly bindings in which the pages of a book are secured together by a stitching or stapling operation.

It has been known heretofore to assemble a number of sheets or signatures and to flatten the intermediate portions of the sheets to provide a book with a square back, after which the sheets are secured together by stitches extending along and through the center of the back. sembling the sheets, the same are nested so that the back portions thereof gradually decrease in width from the outermost to the innermost sheet, and with the staples or stitches extending through the center of the back, no positive means are provided to secure the sheets at the line of fold or crease of the two leaves comprising each sheet. Therefore, the fold lines of the sheets are in no wise reinforced and any opening movement of the leaves beyond the plane of the back of the book would cause the back portions of the sheets to crease along the line of stitching running through the center of the back. Re-

peated opening of the leaves as above referred to, will ultimately result in a tearing away of the sheets from the single line of stitching which constitutes the sole axis about which move the leaves on both sides of the center of the book.

Another type of binding, known as side stitching, involves the securing together of the sheets ter near the inner edges of the pages may be hidden.

An object of the present invention is to provide an improved square or flat back binding which will enable the pages or leaves of the book to be fully opened so that all printing thereon will be easily visible, and in which the pages will be bound more securely by stitching or stapling the sheets along lines of fold of the pages thereof.

Another object is to assemble, in nested relation, a plurality of sheets in which the back portions thereof formed by double fold lines are of progressively decreasing width from the outermost sheet to the center of the book, and wherein the stitches that secure the sheets together In so asextend through the same coincidently with said fold lines so that said stitches will converge inwardly from the outer edges of the back of the book,

By reason of the above arrangement of the stitches, the same will be less conspicuous than the usual saddle or side stitching so that the book will present a more finished appearance. Also, a cover for the book may be fastened in position by said stitching instead of the customary method of adhesively securing the back of the cover to the fiat back portion of the outermost sheet, and with the stitching extending along the fold lines it will not cover or other-- wise interfere with any printing on said cover Fig. 2 is a fragmentary section on the line;

2-2 of Fig. 1 showing the book in closed position, and

Fig. 3 is a transverse section through the book:

showing the same partially opened.

In constructing the present binder, a pluralityof sheets 5, which may be grouped in so-called.

signatures, are creased to provide parallel fold.

lines 6 which define a back portion 1 and two leaves or pages 8 in each sheet, and the Widths; of the back portion 1 progressively decrease from. the outermost to the innermost sheet so as to be: nested one within another prior to the stitching: operation. This method of folding the sheets is;

known in the art, as exemplified in the Taylor- Pat. No. 657,503, dated September 4, 1900, and. is also illustrated in the Grammer Pat. No. 2,066,620, dated January 5, 1937.

According to the present invention, the actual binding of the sheets, after being folded and nested as above described, is accomplished by means of wire staples or like fasteners 9 which are stitched or driven through the sheets and more especially through the various fold lines 6 thereof. A number of such staples may be stitched through the sheets at spaced intervals along each folding line 6 and the stitches in the two rows may be offset with respect to each other as shown in Fig. 1. With the various staples or stitches extending through the sheets coincidently with the various fold lines 6 thereof, the staples 9 on opposite sides of the center line of the book will be disposed in inwardly converging relation to each other and, because of the fact that the staples 9 in each row are arranged along the edges of the back of the book formed by the back portion 1 of the outermost sheet 8, such latter sheet may also be the outer cover of the book and said staples will not, in any way, obscure or interfere with any printing on said back portion 1, as is the case when the stitching is driven through the center of the back and between the fold lines of the sheets. Also, by so i arranging the staples or stitches 9, the same may be employed to fasten the outer cover of the book to the nested sheets, instead of following the customary practice of adhesively securing the back section of said cover to the back portion' of the outermost sheet.

With binding of the character described, each individual page of the book may be opened so that it will lie fiat and thus make visible all of the printing on said page, and by reason of the provision of two rows of stitchingalong the edges of the back portions 7 of the various sheets and the fold lines defining said edges, the pages of the book will be more securely bound together than when a single line of stitching through the said back and extending through the sheet forming the center pages of the book.

2'. A book comprising a plurality of nested sheets each folded on parallel lines to form a back section of different width than others of said sheets, and fastening elements extending through the folds of said sheets to bind the same together.

3. A book comprising a plurality of nested sheets provided with spaced fold lines to form the leaves and back of the book, said back having an angular relation to the plane of said leaves when the book is closed or partially so, and fasteners extending through the angles formed between said back and leaves.

4. A book comprising a plurality of nested sheets folded along parallel line to provide intermediate portions of progressively decreasing widths from the outermost to the innermost sheet and combinin to form a square back for the book with the remainder of said sheets constituting the pages of said book, and fastening elements each extending through all of said sheets, and said elements binding said intermediate portions and said pages together along the lines of fold of each individual sheet so that said fastening elements extend inwardly from the opposite edges of said back and through the sheet forming the center pages of the book with the inner portions of said elements substantially coincident with a plane extending through and bisecting the intermediate portions of said sheets which form the back of the book.

4 ALLEN HOFRICHTER. 

